1. Field of the Invention
The invention discloses methods and building blocks comprising structures deposited on to a removable template comprising a layer of a semiconductor wherein the template is removed before device operation. Optionally a structure may have varied utility such as a photovoltaic device or a component in a battery.
2. Description of Related Art
Related art is found in U.S. Pat. No. 7,789,331; U.S. Pat. No. 8,110,419; U.S. Pat. No. 8,153,528; U.S. Pat. No. 8,207,013; U.S. Pat. No. 8,226,838; U.S.2008/0220558; U.S.2011/0045630; U.S.2010/0243963; U.S.2010/0304035; U.S.2010/0237050; U.S.2011/0192461; U.S.2011/0189405; U.S.2011/0041903; U.S.2012/0031454; U.S.2010/0319759; U.S.2012/0125071; U.S.2012/0164781; U.S.2012/0177841; U.S.2012/0097232; U.S.2011/0277827; U.S.2011/0269264; U.S.202007/0137697; U.S.2007/0047056; U.S.2012/0135159; U.S.2012/0202017; U.S.2009/0001936; U.S.2012/0244391; U.S. Pat. No. 8,178,165; U.S. Pat. No. 8,107,270; U.S. Pat. No. 8,168,284; U.S.2012/0189824; U.S.2012/0237733; U.S.2012/0248414 and publications, WEISS, DIRK; “All-inorganic thermal nanoimprint process”; J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B28(4), July/August 2010; WEISS, DIRK; “All-inorganic thermal nanoimprint process”; J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B28(4), July/August 2010; RICHMOND, DUSTIN, et al; “Pressureless nanoimprinting of anatase TiO2 precursor films”; J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B29(2), March/April 2011; GARNETT, ERIK, et al.; “Silicon Nanowire Radial p-n Junction Solar Cells”; J. AM. Chem. Soc. 2008, 130, 9224; GARNETT, ERIK, et al.; “Silicon Nanowire Hybrid Photovoltaics”; 978-1-4244-5892-9/10; 2010 IEEE; GARNETT, ERIK, et al.; “Nanowire Solar Cells”; Annu. Rev. Mater. Res. 2011, 41; 269; KIM, PHILSEOK, et al.; “Structural Transformation by Electrodeposition.”; ACS Publications, Nano Lett; Mar. 31, 2011; JEONG, SANGMOO, et al.; “Hybrid Silicon Nanocone-Polymer Solar Cells”; ACS Publications, Nano Lett; 2012, 12, 2971; HSU, CHING-MEI, et al.; “High Efficiency Amorphous Silicon Solar Cell . . . ”; Adv. Energy Mater. 2012, 2, 628; KIM, JEEHWAN, et al.; “Three-dimensional a-Si:H Solar Cells on Glass Nanocone Arrays . . . ”; ACSNano, 6, 1, 265, 2012; BECKER, C., et al.; “Large-area 2D periodic crystalline silicon nanodome arrays . . . ”; Nanotechnology 23, 2012, 135302; JEONG JAE WON, et al.; “Nanotransfer printing with sub-10 nm resolution using directed self-assembly”; Adv. Mater. 2012; wileyonline.com; TAVAKKOLI, K. G.; et al.; “Templating three dimensional self-assembled structures in bilayer block copolymer films”; Science, 336, 6086, 1294 (2012); LIU, XIAO HUA, et al.; “Insitu atomic-scale imaging of electrochemical lithiation in silicon”; nature nanotechnology, 7 Oct., 2012; WU, HUI, et al.; “Six thousand electrochemical cycles of double-walled silicon nanotube anodes for lithium ion batteries”; SLAC-PUB-14379, 2011; LIU, NIAN, et al.; “A yolk design for stabilized and scalable Li-ion battery alloy anodes”; ACS Nano Lett April, 2012; CUSHEN, J., et al.; “Oligosaccharide/Silicon-Containing Block Copolymers with 5 nm Features for Lithographic Applications”; ACS Nano, 6(4), 2012, 3424. Related art cited are incorporated in their entirety herein by reference.
In 2006 Kempa filed on a radial nano-coax structure for a solar cell. Over time this structure has evolved into a radial p-n junction and recently into a plurality of structures including peaks and troughs from IBM. All suffer from being too costly for wide spread implementation as solar cells.